Busmates
by Lptbl
Summary: It was a win-win situation, he thought, she would keep him awake for the bus trip and he would help her navigate herself around, his grin grew wider at the pure genius of the thought, yes, this was absolutely perfect/ kirixsaku/ please read and review!
1. Chapter I: Sakuno meets Akaya on the bus

**Lptbl here, this is a Kirisaku two- possibly three- shot. I've never written a Prince of Tennis fanfic before, but I've read tons and thought, why not? This plot was in my head for a while and I decided to type it up! I hope you like it. Everyone's a little OOC, especially Marui, and there are a lot grammatical errors in it 'cause I don't have a beta, but I make do with what I have :]**

**Please tell me if you spot any errors and I'll fix it right away!**

**Sakuno: **Lptbl does not own Prince of Tennis

**Lptbl:** Damn straight I don't!

**Akaya: **...thank _God_

**_Busmates:._**

**_Chapter One_**

**_Kirihara Akaya x Ryuuzaki Sakuno_**

_It was a win-win situation, he thought as he stared at the young girl in front of him who was shyly wringing her hands together, she would keep him awake for the bus trip and he would help her navigate herself around, his grin grew wider at the pure genius of the thought, yes, this was absolutely perfect._

**Prince of Tennis**

"Yes yes fuku-buchou," sigh, "I accidentally slept on the bus... _again_," he moved the mobile ten centimetres away from his ears to free himself of the verbal assault Sanada was giving him, things like '_I'll slap you so hard when you get back_', and '_if this keeps up Akaya, I'll cut you from the regulars_' were stated and Akaya knew that Sanada was just _saying_ those things, okay, perhaps not the slapping bit... that was definitely going to get carried out. He could hear his sempai (read Niou and Marui) laughing and jeering over the phone and it immediately ceased when Sanada gave the 'Sanada glare' to them. God knew how Akaya knew that Sanada was glaring at them. He could hear a frustrated sigh and Akaya placed the phone back to his ear, knowing that he was in the safe zone, "I'll let it slide this time Akaya, but next week, if you are late I will cut you. No excuses."

"What if someone dies and-"

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Akaya glanced at his phone and flipped it shut, sighing back into his seat, he pondered on how he could have slept on the bus. _It's because I have no one to talk to_, sighs, _these bus rides are so darn boring without a companion to keep me entertained_. Feeling that there was no point in worrying about whether or not he was going to be late (for he had already missed practice), he closed in eyes in an attempt to fall back asleep.

What seemed like hours, but actual only mere minutes, his eyes opened sharply and he felt pretty annoyed, "why is it when I need to stay awake I fall asleep, but when I try to go sleep, I can't?" he muttered darkly under his breath, feeling like Kami-sama was trying to prove something to him.

Glancing around the bus, he noticed that there were only a few people there, three if he had to go into detail. To his right were a couple who had obviously no sense of privacy as they were showing off an awful amount of PDA (i.e touch, giggle, kiss, whisper, giggle, make out, repeat cycle), and to his left was a shy looking girl who had, every five minutes, glanced to the couple and turn bright red, rivalling a tomato. He stared at the girl, feeling that she was somewhat familiar, especially with her long braids (_Niou-sempai would have a field day with her_) and instantly came out of his trance when her phone started ringing.

"Eh, Obaa-chan?" the girl said as she picked up her phone, Akaya noted that the girl had a sweet voice, particularly considering the fact that all the girls he knew were rabid fangirls who screamed 'Marui-sempai! Marui-sempai, please take my sweets!' or 'Yukimura-sempai! KYAAAAH! He looked at me!' on a daily basis.

The voice over the phone spoke again and the girl's face immediately became apologetic, "Ahh, I'm so sorry Obaa-chan, you see, when I was getting the groceries... I kind of got... geographically misplaced?"

Akaya snorted. He could hear the person on the other end muttering something like 'geographically misplaced my foot', and he threatened to burst out laughing.

"Okay, how about... I got turned around... a lot?" she was hopeful, this girl was.

She sighed, "okay, okay, okay, I got lost, happy?... How? Uhh, I think I got on the wrong bus... then when I realised I was on the wrong bus I got off and started walking into the wrong direction, ahh, don't worry, I'm on the right bus now... I think," she looked around the bus, brown eyes met green and her face instantly flushed. "Ahh, Obaa-chan, I gotta... I gotta go now. Ja."

Akaya never really realised when, but the couple had long left, leaving the brunette girl and the black haired boy together. Noticing that his stop wasn't going to come until _forever_ Akaya moved towards the girl and took the seat next to her. He could've sworn he saw her face flush brighter.

"Ahh... ano..." the girl began, not knowing exactly how to strike up a conversation. "I'm Ryuuzaki Sakuno, it's nice to meet you Kirihara-san," she said as she gave a little bow.

Akaya's eyes widened at the fact that this girl knew his name, he momentarily wondered if he was wearing a 'Hi! I'm Kirihara Akaya' sticker on him or something.

Seeing the look that he was making, Sakuno clarified straight away. "Eh, ahh, I saw you at the Kanto Tournament against Fuji-sempai..."

Comprehending that she put 'sempai' at the end of Fuji's name meant that she went to Seigaku. He gave a curious glance to her. Sanada had always told him to never fraternise with the enemy.

She immediately became flustered and he wondered if it was just him or if she was a naturally shy girl. "Ahh, ano, I was cheering for Seigaku with my friend Tomo-chan..."

A light bulb went off in Akaya's head and his fist connected with his palm, as if to say, 'ohhh, I get it'. "You were the girl with that loud girl!" Out of all honesty, he only remembered the loud girl because Sanada kept on giving her the stink eye when she was screaming 'Ryoma-sama! Ryoma-sama!' during their match, Akaya, and all of his teammates came into a rare mutual agreement to feel sorry for her, because they all knew Sanada secretly wanted to use one of his Fuurin Kazan moves on her. Which, was not a pretty sight.

"Yeah... Tomo-chan is so brave and confident," she sighed. She looked outside and she recognised the stop, "ahh, this is my stop, ja ne Kirihara-san," she gave a small wave before getting off the bus.

Akaya stared at her departing figure, he watched as her braids seemed to flow behind her elegantly, if that was even possible.

_Ryuuzaki Sakuno huh?_ he leaned back into his seat, _it suits her_.

**Prince of Tennis**

"Eh? Yanagi-sempai! You have information on Ryuuzaki-chan?" asked a flabbergasted Akaya as he stared at his sempai in shock. What a small world he lived in.

Yanagi merely nodded and said something about often exchanging data about the regulars with Sadaharu and he somehow managed to get little Ryuuzaki Sakuno's data file.

"You know Ryuuzaki-san?"

Akaya shook his head, "no, I met her on the bus and I thought that maybe you'd have info on her, but I didn't think it'd be true!"

"Yes, I have her birthday, history, family tree beginning from her great-grandparents from both sides, her three sizes-"

"Woah, woah, woah, three sizes?" Akaya's eyes widened at the revelation.

"Yes, three sizes, you know, bust-waist-h-"

Akaya silenced him immediately, feeling a blush coming onto his cheeks, _darn it, I didn't know blushing was contagious!_ "I know what they are," who knew that Yanagi-sempai was such a pervert.

Yanagi's next comment was drowned out by the loud voices of his sempai (once again, read Niou and Marui).

"Eh? Our little Akaya is interested in a girl?" exclaimed a loud Niou, followed by an even louder Marui.

"Who'd ever thought he'd be such a man!" laughs soon followed this comment.

"I'm not interested in a girl, I was just wondering!" retorted Akaya in an equally boisterous tone. The trio became quiet when they saw an angry Sanada walk into the courts.

"Everyone, fifty laps!"

They all got off their butts and jogged off.

Akaya couldn't wait until Saturday showed up.

**Prince of Tennis**

Much to his delight, on the Saturday, he saw little Ryuuzaki-chan sitting in the corner of the bus. Feeling extremely lucky, he quickly snatched the seat next to her.

Her head snapped to look up at him, "ahh, uhh, that's seats... uhhh, tak- Oh, it's you Kirihara-san," she visibly relaxed when she knew it wasn't a pervert that sat beside her.

He tilted his head slightly to greet her.

"How are you Kirihara-san? I seem to be seeing you a lot in buses," she grinned a little and her face tinted red.

Akaya gave his own devilish grin, "Akaya."

Inclining her head to the side, she gave him a questioning look.

"Call me Akaya, Kirihara is too long."

"Ahh, Akaya... Akaya-san... eh, ano, you can call me Sakuno..."

"Sakuno-chan."

The air between them became awkward and neither could bring themselves to start a conversation. Akaya, feeling that he should be a man, started one, but it ended miserably.

"So, you go to Seigaku huh?"

"...yeah."

Awkward silence.

"Ano, Akaya-san, what are you doing on this bus anyway, ahh, eto, not that I'm insinuating that you shouldn't be here or anything! I only meant like, where _are _you going, not that I want to seem rude or anything... ahh, eto, I'm confusing myself..." her head bowed down in shame.

Akaya only shook it off, "ahh, I have tennis practice and fuku-buchou gets particularly strict when I come late... which is nearly always."

Sakuno's head cocked to the side again and Akaya found it extremely adorable, _wait, what? Adorable?_

"Oh," he shed some light on the situation, "I sleep on the bus. A lot. Like, you hardly ever see me _not_ sleeping on the bus."

"But you're not now," Sakuno pointed out.

Akaya's grin grew, "well, that's 'cause I'm talking to you, I mean, it's be extremely impolite if I fell asleep while talking to someone, wouldn't it?" not that he knew the meaning of 'polite', of course.

"I suppose, ahh, eto, if it makes you feel better Akaya-san, I get lost easily, actually, when I first met Ryoma-kun, I accidentally pointed him into the wrong direction and he was late for his match, then he had to forfeit it."

Akaya laughed and Sakuno sunk her head in shame.

"Ano, it's not funny Akaya-san."

He wiped the tears from his eyes, "so, why are you here?"

"Ahh, I go grocery shopping every week to restock our food supplies."

His eyes became curious, "every week?" he started to wonder how much food exactly went into his little companion.

"I restock 'cause I make the regulars Bentos sometimes, and everyone eats a lot," blush, "I mean, they are growing boys."

He nodded in agreement. Growing boys indeed.

Then, something clicked.

It was a win-win situation, he thought as he stared at the young girl in front of him who was shyly wringing her hands together, she would keep him awake for the bus trip and he would help her navigate herself around, his grin grew wider at the pure genius of the thought, yes, this was absolutely perfect.

"Sakuno-chan!" his hand grabbed hers and his eyes gleamed with joy.

"...yes...?"

He filled her in on the details and stressed out that Sanada would have his butt if he was late. Ever. She looked uncertain but she felt like she had to help him, especially since he kept on saying how Sanada would skin him alive, or make him run laps until he died, or slap him until a permanent redness of the cheeks grew or, well, you get the point.

"So, will you? I mean, the shops are about across the streets from the courts, it's perfect I tell you!"

"Ah, umm, sure... I guess."

Akaya nearly died of joy.

**Prince of Tennis**

Akaya felt very smug when he entered the courts that day, he was earlier than the sometimes early Niou and Marui, earlier than the always early Yagyuu, Jackal and Yanagi and even earlier than the earliest Sanada. Feeling somewhat lonely, he tugged at Sakuno's skirt and begged her to stay with him.

"...all you have to do is stay here until someone comes; we can go home together if you want, it'd doesn't take that long to shop, when you're done, you can come back here and watch me practice!"

Sakuno felt like she was being ambushed, he made her feel that she was obliged to stay, one look at Akaya's puppy dog face and Sakuno was a sucker. Hook, line and Sinker.

She settled down on the bleachers and Akaya got up and bounced towards her, they talked about various things, like about the Seigaku regulars and the Rikkai regulars. "Everytime he helps me practice it's always," her voice lowered a notch dramatically, "'your knees need to bend more, you're shoulders are too stressed and you're hair is too long'! I like my hair, I think it's pretty, but, secretly, I think Ryoma-kun wants me to burn it off... or something."

Akaya nodded solemnly, "I think your hair is very pretty Sakuno-chan."

"Thank you," her voice sounded slightly exasperated, "finally someone agrees with me!"

Akaya didn't know what overcame him, his hand was acting against his own will, his right hand gently went to touch one of her braids and her face went a dark red. He let go quickly, and her hand held the braid that he had before. Feeling really embarrassed she hid her face with her hands.

"Akaya?"

Akaya wanted to smack Sanada in the head for ruining the moment... if there was a moment.

Sakuno hastily stood up, surprising the fuku-buchou and the second year ace, and made her exit while waving him goodbye, "ja ne Akaya-kun, I'll see you later, ahh, ja Sanada-san."

Akaya sighed dreamily on his spot and Sanada gave him a wary glance. "You're early. For once."

He placed his chin on his hands, "you do crazy things when you're in love."

"...in what?"

Akaya grew flustered and decided to change the topic, "ahh, fuku-buchou, why are you late?"

"I'm not, you're obscenely early." Sanada made a quick look at the retreating form of the girl who had, just earlier, occupied the seat beside their second year boy.

"He's too careless," he mumbled under his breath.

"Sanada-fuku-buchou! Oh, the brat's here too! Did you do something to the girl that was just leaving in this general vicinity?" asked a happy Niou, followed by the rest of the team.

"No, why do you ask?" said Akaya, before Sanada could put his two cents in.

"She was just, really red, like, really flustered, like someone did something _indecent_ here," Marui gave Akaya a shifty look.

"Why do you think it's me? Why not fuku-buchou?"

Everyone glanced at Sanada through the corner of their eyes, and started laughing, even the gentleman Yagyuu and the respecting Jackal began to chuckle at the thought.

Sanada felt slightly exploited and said the one thing that Akaya didn't want him to say, "he's in love."

Everyone blinked. Once. Twice. "Come again?"

"The girl you just saw, Akaya is in love with her," Sanada said again, pulling his cap to cover his face.

"EH?"

Yanagi was the least shocked of the group, "you're in love with Ryuuzaki-san?" Akaya just nodded slowly, in slight denial.

"It was love at first sight I suppose."

"Wait, hold the phone here," Marui interrupted, rubbing his chin in thought, "Ryuuzaki... Ryuuzaki... sounds familiar; I just can't put a face to the memory. Jackal, you think for me."

"Eh? Why me? Although, I do agree with you, Ryuuzaki does sound familiar," Jackal answered.

"It should, Ryuuzaki-san is Ryuuzaki-sensei's, of Seigaku, granddaughter," Yanagi explained to his teammates and everyone (minus Sanada, Yagyuu and Yanagi) seemed to go into some kind of cardiac arrest. Three voices were heard at once, exclaiming things like:

"You could do much better Akaya!" Niou.

"That baby chick was that ogre's granddaughter? You can't marry her!" Marui. (Which was retorted with, 'who ever said anything about marrying anyone?')

"She's the enemy!" Jackal.

"She's a wolf in sheep's clothing!" Niou.

"You'll be castrated on your wedding day!" Marui ('WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT MARRIAGE!')

...and so on so forth. Every statement they made, Akaya would rebut it with a snide comment of his own. "Why do you guys know she's not good enough for me? You've never met her!"

The hat wearing fuku-buchou's head turned to the front gate, "if they haven't before, they are now."

Akaya's head snapped towards where Sanada was looking at, and in all her glory was the subject of their argument, holding at least seven bags that looked a little heavy for a girl like her. "Ano, Akaya-kun, maybe... maybe this is a bad time..." She bowed to his teammates to apologise for interrupting their 'practice' but she ended up spilling all the contents of her bags on the ground. "Ah, oh my, I'm so sorry... I'll just get these and be off now..." her face grew a bright red. She picked up her groceries one by one and managed to collect them all, she looked at them to apologise once more but she noticed all their jaws were totally slack. "Um...ano, is something wrong?" Sakuno felt extremely self-conscious now.

"No, it's just-" Niou started.

"You're really cute," ended Marui dreamily, "will you marry me?"

"OI, OI! Aren't you being a little hypocritical sempai?" asked an angered Akaya.

Marui ignored him and looked at her groceries, "choc-chip? Flour? Milk? Those are the ingredients to bake cookies and stuff! Ryuuzaki-chan, can you bake?"

She nodded shyly, "yes, a bit... ano, I think I should be going," before she could leave the courts, he was in front of her in a flash.

"No, you can't leave me! I found my angel, my sweet, my love, my _destined_. Even if you can bake a little, that's better than nothing. Marry me Ryuuzaki-chan and we'll elope because our parents will be against the fact that there would be an us. We'll be like any other family and have two-and-a-half kids and you'll make the delicious cookies and muffins and cupcakes and treats and I'll work day and night to supports us and our children."

Everyone (including Sanada) looked at Marui like he had sprouted a head.

"An us? Elope? Two-and-a-half kids? Man, you're finally off your rocker Marui," said Niou after a while, shaking his head in dismay.

"It's all that sugar," stated Akaya, "it's finally got to his head."

Sakuno turned a brighter red than she had ever turned before, "ano, Akaya-kun... I think... I think I'm going to leave now... uhh, see you next week?"

Akaya gave a curt nod.

"Umm, ja ne, Akaya-kun... Marui-san... Niou-san, Yagyuu-san, Yanagi-san, Sanada-san and Jackal-san... I'm going to take my leave, ja!"

Grabbing her shopping bags tightly, she ran as fast as she could, well, as fast as her little clumsy legs could take her. Behind her, she could hear protests from Marui ('NOOOOOOOO'_)_, and encouragement from the rest of the team ('Run little Ryuuzaki! Run! We'll hold him back!').

As soon as she was out of sight, everyone let go of the gluttonous red-head and made cautious glances to each other.

"Well, Akaya, your girlfriend is interesting, but we must get back to practice," said Sanada, snapping out of the shock.

Something in Akaya cracked, "she's not my girlfriend! Jeez, even fuku-buchou is making fun of me now," he pouted slightly.

"Yeah, what the brat said. There is no way in hell that that sweet, heavenly angel can be this brat's girlfriend. I mean, he's the DEVIL of the courts! And she's... she's an ANGEL!" argued Marui, crossing his arms over his chest.

Niou chuckled, "ahh, but Marui, you forget, in science, positives and negatives attract. Plain and simple. Opposites attract."

Marui stuck his tongue out at the trickster, "well, that may be true, but you forget the fundamentals of maths. A positive and Negative always equals a negative," he said haughtily, as if to make a point.

Sanada groaned under his breath, they had been here for over an hour and they hadn't practiced yet. Were they ever going to practice? This argument was childish. Deciding that that the quarrel was a waste of time, he put on a hard expression and yelled at the two third years.

"Marui! Niou! Ten laps around the courts. Now!"

"Fuku-buchou!" whined the two boys.

"We'll make that twenty then," he snapped back.

"Bu-"

"Thirty laps!"

"B-" before Marui could open his mouth to argue some more, Niou covered his mouth and started running with the red-head.

"What are you?" whispered Niou harshly to the glutton, as they were running around the courts, "crazy? He'll make it to forty!"

Realising that the silver-haired boy had a point, he promptly shut his mouth.

Akaya, still at the bleachers laughed at his sempai, finding it hilarious that the two had to run laps because of a relatively stupid reason.

"Don't think you're off the hook Akaya."

Akaya gulped.

"Fifty swings of the racquet and then you have a practice match with me."

Akaya paled.

This could not be good.

* * *

**Now that it's done, and you've (probably) read it, please review ^^**


	2. Chapter II: Sakuno's in a reverse harem?

**Lptbl here, sorry about the delay, but after I gave it a lot of thought, I decided to make this story multichapter-ed, instead of it being a twoshot like before. Lots of editing happened and I decided it was too abrupt [but all the good bits will come, I assure you]. This is a filler chapter, mostly giving you hints about what's to come, and I apologise for using the shoujo manga reference one too many times, I couldn't help it ^^'**

**Happy shout out to my reviewers for the first chapter: **_AlphaSigma, sashlee 14, Midnight Hikari, SasoLOVE111, Card Captor Yuki Dark, paranoia syndrome, Haruka, BigBangTOPisVIP, nayuta, Felicia1212 and aaaa. _**You guys made me smile c:**

**Marui: **If Lptbl owned Prince of Tennis, it would've had some kind of reverse harem twist with Sakuno-chan in the middle of it.

**Lptbl: **-nods- he's right you know, and I don't think Echizen could live with his fan being fought for

**Echizen: **made made dane

**_Busmates:._**

**_Chapter Two_**

**_Kirihara Akaya x Ryuuzaki Sakuno_**

**Prince of Tennis_  
_**

It was the third week that Akaya had seen Sakuno on the same bus as him, of course, that was if he included the time where he briefly sat next to her and conversed for like, two seconds.

"Hiya Sakuno-chan, whatcha got there?" he asked the brunette when he saw that she held a bag that seemed like it was full of food.

"Ah, Akaya-kun, ah... well, I brought some food for the team 'cause I thought that, uh, that, y'know, with all that practice... you'd get hungry," she replied, obviously embarrassed, "ah... it's alright if no one eats anything I suppose, because it's impolite for me to be doing things of my own accord... oh no, it's really impolite... I'll go find a trashcan to throw it out right now-"

Akaya stopped the girl before she did anything drastic, "no, I doubt the team would mind," he grinned, "and even, if they don't like it, then that's their own fault, more yummy food for me!"

Sakuno giggled at Akaya's silliness. Watching the girl laugh next to him, made his heart soar.

"So, what _kind_ of food do you have in your little hands, Sakuno-chan?" he asked, feeling that his own belly rumble slightly.

"Ah, well, since I don't know what the team likes and dislikes, I just sort of made a little of everything..."

The second year ace stroked his chin in thought, "clarify for me."

"Ah, ano, I had some extra rice left, so I made some Onigiri, and I made some traditional food for Sanada-san because he looks like the type to eat traditional foods... and Jackal-san came from Brazil right? And Brazilians like spicy foods, yeah? So I made spicy foods for him... and because I really didn't know what Niou-san, Yagyuu-san and Yanagi-san liked, I just made anything that came in mind... oh, and I made some pastries for Marui-san, since I heard he had a sweet tooth."

"Understatement of the century," Akaya said, rolling his eyes.

"Hmm? What was that?"

"...Nothing... ah, we're here, come on Sakuno-chan."

They both got off the bus and advanced to their destination.

"Sakuno-chan, how about me and you go shopping after practice, instead of you going shopping during practice."

She cocked her head to the side "...why?"

"Well," he scratched an invisible itch on the back of his neck, "well, because you have all this food here with you and wouldn't it be a hassle if you took it along with you? And besides, shopping's always a lot more fun when you have people to come with you."

"Oh, I see, well, I suppose that's alright too."

Akaya heard someone snort from behind the two. "What a _lame_ excuse, I bet you only want Sakuno-chan there because you want to hoard her for yourself AND have some extra time with her afterwards," sniffed a displeased Marui followed by Niou and Jackal.

Niou laughed alongside his friend, "and the brat wants to show off his _awesome_ tennis skills as well, right Marui?"

The red-head nodded in agreement, then, he smelt something... wonderful. Tasty. Completely _Mouthwatering_.

His eyes immediately locked on the bag in Sakuno's hands.

He inched towards the brunette slyly as she inched back, "say, Sa-ku-no-chan~... is that- is that what I think it is...?"

Her initial reaction was to cower in fear for this semi-familiar boy was suddenly invading her personal space, "ah...ah, ano... there are sweets," gulp, "...sweets in this bag... uhhh..."

She couldn't look at the puppy dog face Marui was giving her. It was too cutesy and too blinding for her innocent eyes.

"...you can have some if you want."

The glutton snatched the bag out of her hands and rummaged through its contents, "let's see what we got here... hmm, some bentos, onigiri... boring. Ah, CUPCAKES! Oh! And Cookies!" he hugged the bag suddenly and looked back at Sakuno with stars in his eyes.

"Sakuno-chan! I knew this was meant to be! You- you... you are perfect! It was no coincidence that we met. As the famous Yuuko-san from xxxHolic said: '_there is no thing as coincidence, there is only inevitability'. _We were made for each other Sakuno-chan!"

Akaya slapped him across the head in annoyance, "oi sempai, what's with this over-familiar way of addressing Sakuno-chan, you barely know her!"

A vein burst on Marui's forehead, "and you've known her for what? Five conversations? I don't think you're the right person telling me that I'm too familiar when you barely know her yourself, brat."

"At least I ain't hovering over her like some completely obsessed stalker!"

"I'm not hovering! And I'm not stalking!"

"You two, stop arguing, you're scaring Ryuuzaki-chan," chastised Niou.

The two boys glared at each other before proceeding.

"Stupid Glutton."

"Stupid Brat."

"Pig!"

"Seaweed-haired idiot!"

"What was that?"

..._Sigh_.

**Prince of Tennis**

Marui looked at the cupcake in interest. The top was covered in pink cream and pictures of the Rikkai regulars were decoratively placed on them, the left over cupcakes had tennis balls on them.

"Sakuno-chan, did you make these?" asked a curious Akaya, staring at the cupcake in awe.

"...Uh, yes, I did Akaya-kun..." Sakuno answered back, twiddling her fingers together.

Marui took the first bite before the regulars, he slumped to the ground, and everyone stiffened.

"...Marui?" asked Niou tentatively, glancing back and forth between the red-head and the cupcake in his hands.

Tears formed in the boy's eyes and the rest of them glanced suspiciously at the goods.

"These... these are the best cupcakes I have ever tasted!"

"What?"

Akaya took the next bite and he brightened, "these are awesome Sakuno-chan."

Before they had realised it, Marui had finished his and was pleading for Sanada's one, which, he, surprisingly enough, decided to eat himself.

"...Ahh, Marui-san, I have some extras... if you'd like."

The glutton's face shined, "call me Bunta-kun!"

**Prince of Tennis**

It was the Monday following the Saturday, and the Rikkai tennis team were conversing about their new acquaintance. The team had, strangely enough, become attached to their long haired friend, and they all found... completely and utterly odd, considering their reputation as hard faced, non-attaching type of guys.

"Sakuno-chan is nice, ne, fuku-buchou?"

"She is, but she's very soft spoken," interjected Yanagi.

Marui's eyes glistened, "but isn't that what makes her cute? Her Soft spoken-ness and her Clumsiness? And the fact that she can cook is just a HUGE plus!"

"...Dude. What are you? An Otaku? She's a _person_, not some kind of anime character," Niou sighed, worrying about his friend's health.

"This is like a shoujo manga though," Marui continued on, "like, the heroine meets a boy, in this case, our brat, and he falls in love with her, but she's in love with SOMEONE ELSE! Dun-dun-dun, that someone else is the brat of Seigaku, by the way, and then, the handsome best friend (me) of the former brat comes in and sweeps her off her feet and they all live happily ever after!"

Everyone fell down anime style, "what kind of shitty shoujo manga is that? The girl gets with the first guy!" Niou exclaimed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I agree with what Niou-sempai said, and since when are you my best friend?" Akaya pitched in.

Marui wrapped an arm around the boy, grinning from ear to ear, "come on A-ka-ya, we're totally best friends, I mean, if I'm not, then who is? Niou? Pssh, that guy would deceive you in two seconds flat, Jackal, well, let's say he's not best friend material-"

"Hey, I resent that!"

"-Yagyuu, oh man, let's not start on him, Yanagi, he'll just blackmail you into giving him some juicy info, and Sanada-fuku-buchou and Yukimura-buchou? What are you? Some kind of masochist? They're like the princes of Planet S."

Akaya stroked his chin in thought, "you do have a point there sempai..."

"I know right, I'm not a prodigy for nothing."

"But still. No."

Marui sighed.

Jackal, recovering from the harsh words Marui said asked Akaya if she was going to the next practice.

"I think so; she said she had to buy some rice, so I'm coming with her to the shops."

Sanada sighed, "have you all forgotten?" the team looked at their fuku-buchou in interest, "next week is when Yukimura is going to be discharged, so, we're all going to the hospital to welcome him back."

"But Sanada-fuku-buchou, shouldn't we let Sakuno-chan and Yukimura-buchou meet? That's killing two birds with one stone, right?"

"Yeah fuku-buchou, better now than later, when we're not there, who knows what the Prince of S is going to do to her by herself!" exclaimed Marui.

Niou chipped in, "I agree, And I don't think Yukimura-buchou would mind if we introduce him to a cute girl," Niou laughed, "he might make this love square into a love pentagon."

Akaya's eyes widened, "he couldn't... he couldn't possibly fall for Sakuno-chan, right? Right?"

Niou shrugged, enjoying the current situation, "who knows, you and Marui fell for her at first sight, right...?"

"We should let Ryuuzaki-chan meet Yukimura, Sanada, it would be good data to have," said Yanagi ending the conversation.

**Prince of Tennis**

"_A-Achooooooo_," sniff. Yukimura wiped his nose with the sleeve of his pyjama shirt.

"Yukimura-kun, are you coming down with a fever?" asked a worried nurse who was currently on duty, rushing to his side to take his temperature.

The boy looked outside the window and smiled, "no, I don't think so, someone must be talking about me..."

**Prince of Tennis**

Two girls walked down the halls of Seigaku, one adorned a shirt and banner that read out '_RYOMA-SAMA_' and the other blushing heavily next to her.

"Sakuno, is it just me, or are you a lot cheerier?" asked a nosy Tomo, as they went through the school.

Sakuno touched her cheeks, "how so Tomo-chan?"

"It's just that, well, you're... _glowing_."

"Red I suppose."

Tomo laughed, "well, that, but I dunno, there's something different about you, something good happen lately?"

Sakuno thought back, "I made some friends on the weekend," she smiled.

"Really, what are they like?"

She thought about Akaya and the words came out instantly, "well, one's very happy-go-lucky, even though everyone thinks otherwise, he's very helpful and makes me smile," then, she thought about the self-proclaimed prodigy and she blushed, "umm, the other is very... how should I say, well, he's like Eiji-sempai I suppose, and he likes to eat sweets."

"Does he go '_Nya_' as well?"

"Well, no, but it would suit his image," she thought about Niou, "one of them, well, he's very tricky, you never know what he's thinking, and when you think you do, he completely goes the other way! And then there's a guy who likes to collect data, like Inui-sempai and one is a complete gentleman, and one is very friendly, he's like an older brother, and well, the last one is kind of scary, but he's nice in his own way."

"Ah, so like Tezuka-buchou," Tomo nodded in thought.

Sakuno sweat-dropped, "yeah... like Tezuka-buchou."

"Wait a minute, for each of those explanations, you said HE!"

Sakuno was hoping that Tomo wasn't that sharp to figure that out.

"Oh my gosh, you met like," she started counting with her fingers, " seven guys! This is like a shoujo manga, before you know it, these guys would be vying for your attention."

Sakuno sweat-dropped for the second time that day, "Tomo-chan, I wouldn't go that far..."

"Unlikely as it may seem, these types of situations have their own genre. Where there's one girl and for some reason every guy she meets falls in love with her even though she's totally normal and can't do anything special."

"Gee, thanks, way to boost my ego Tomo-chan," Sakuno said sarcastically to her best friend.

"Haha, sorry, I didn't mean you Sakuno, but anyway, reverse harem is getting very popular lately, like La Corda d'Oro, and Starry Sky, oh, and my all time fave Stray Love Hearts."

Sakuno was starting to believe that this reverse harem genre was a load of-

"Saa... what's this I hear about reverse harem?" asked Fuji, walking behind the two girls, unbeknownst to them, the girls had been actually followed by the prodigy for a while.

"Well, Sakuno here has made seven boy fall in-"

The loud mouthed girl was silenced by her best friend who was blushing slightly at the presence of her sempai, "nothing Fuji-sempai, ahh! Is that the time? Me and Tomo-chan have to leave! Right now. Ja Fuji-sempai!"

The long haired girl rushed out with her friend in tow, and the brown-haired boy watched them in interest.

"Saa... this is interesting..."

* * *

**Now, it's time to, -drumroll- REVIEW, oh, Happy New Years by the way!**


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